ANAHEIM, Calif. – Mechanical issues with their plane in Phoenix left the Toronto Blue Jays with a decision to make late Sunday afternoon. They could wait until another plane arrived for the short flight to Orange County ahead of their series with the Los Angeles Angels, or they could hit the road for a roughly 5½-hour drive west.
Once a player vote landed on buses, Dylan Cease was put on a commercial flight to ensure an optimal night of rest before his start Monday night and he arrived around 9:30 p.m., some three hours before his teammates.
“He got in at a really reasonable time,” said manager John Schneider, who was midway through the journey when Cease touched down. “I was like, 'awesome. I'm going to sit here and stare at the fence.'”
How much the more convenient travel helped Cease is impossible to measure, although it couldn’t have hurt on a night he threw a season-high 110 pitches in just five innings while striking out 12, the first Blue Jays starter ever with that many Ks through five frames.
Combined with another big night from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who ran his hitting streak to 11 games with three hits, including a monster two-run homer in the second and a single that set up Lenyn Sosa’s go-ahead sacrifice fly in the sixth, that produced a 5-2 win.
“A six-hour bus ride would have been like the minor leagues again, it would have been fine,” said Cease. “But flying was definitely a little bit better. It definitely got me in bed earlier. I probably got an extra couple of hours of sleep compared to the guys and didn’t have to sit in an uncomfortable position for a long time, as well.”
Nathan Lukes delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the seventh and a run-scoring groundout in the ninth, extending his resurgence since his vertigo issues began stabilizing Friday. The bullpen, meanwhile, closed things out with Braydon Fisher (a clean sixth), Louis Varland (four outs, including a Mike Trout strikeout to open the eighth), Tyler Rogers (two outs) and Jeff Hoffman (bouncing back from two rough outings with a clean ninth for his third save).
Along with Sunday’s 10-4 thumping of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Blue Jays (9-13) have consecutive wins for just the third time this year, and first since victories on April 8 and 10. They now have two shots at ending a run of six straight series losses, beginning with Tuesday night, when Patrick Corbin starts against Jack Kochanowicz.
That these Blue Jays wins coincide with their best consecutive games at the plate since the season-opening sweep over the Athletics should come as no surprise. They have been emphasizing better swing decisions for the better part of a week, knowing opposing pitchers have lived on the edges and pulled them off the plate, and while there have still been hiccups – like Sosa striking out on three chase sliders with the bases loaded in the first – they’ve been better at hunting pitches with which to do damage.
Guerrero did that in the third, when he mashed a Reid Detmers changeup over the heart of the plate 430 feet to straightaway centre that opened a 2-1 lead. It was just his second home run of the season and seventh extra-base hit among his 29 thus far, which might be why his 11-game hit streak has felt quiet.
“It's like the most nonchalant two-hit games every night” said Myles Straw, who singled, walked and scored twice. “Kind of started off like this last year, but he still gets the hits, he drives in the runs and that power is going to come. He's just crazy. Whatever he wants to do that day, he kind of does it.”
The success isn’t that simple, of course, for Guerrero, who is “feeling good and pleased” with where he’s at in the batter’s box. While he acknowledged that he’s been hitting the ball on the ground a lot, he’s taking his hits without chasing slug.
“I'm not worried about hitting homers,” he said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “I'm just trying to put everything together, trying to use the entire field. That's basically what I'm trying to do in my routine.”
Bigger picture, the Blue Jays are aiming to make routine the offensive approach that’s led to 15 runs the past two games after being held to three runs or less 11 times, winning just once in those games.
“It's a pretty similar message most days, right? Major-league pitchers are good and they all make mistakes,” said Schneider. “Guys need to almost just slow down a little bit. When I think of really good hitters, they're not afraid to be 0-1. They're stubborn. (Sunday) was just different to where, early too, it was right there. So you have to just really be stubborn with it and know that you make a lot of contact, but that can hurt you sometimes, too.”
The Angels tried to use contact to wear down Cease, who kept on attacking and missing bats when he needed to. The only damage against him came when Nolan Schanuel doubled and scored on Jorge Soler's single in the first off a diving Ernie Clement’s glove, and a Schanuel sacrifice fly in the third set up by a Zach Neto and Trout double steal.
Cease allowed five hits and two walks and is the only Blue Jays starter to surpass 100 pitches, doing it for the second time Monday.
“I feel like they did a good job (of spoiling pitches) and I feel like I need to execute a little bit better,” said Cease. “They put some balls in play and they got hits, and there were a lot of deep counts. I was fine, still throwing hard stuff, still sharp. It's just I want it to be six or seven at 110 and not five. But we won so I'm happy.”
So were the Blue Jays, even after the long bus ride to Anaheim made for a short night. Still, the vibes were so high that Schneider was “reprimanded by Max (Scherzer) for electing to travel” by bus despite the player vote, receiving a formal Kangaroo Court summons printed on a high-end paper stock.
“We're going to go to trial,” vowed Schneider. “I was like, ‘Max, why don't you just buy a plane? You've got plenty of cash.’ Most players that were playing (Monday) wanted to get out of there. That was kind of it.”
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